Datacom Group CEO, Jonathan Ladd
Datacom has been awarded a $35.2 million contract with the Department of Home Affairs through its customer experience and contact centre business, Datacom Connect.
Datacom Connect will provide client enquiry services as part of the department’s program to modernise its visa and citizenship services, providing information and assistance to people enquiring about coming to Australia.
The contract will run for just over three years, running through to 30 May 2021, according to the contract notice.
"The department has a need for long term, cost-effective client enquiry services which will reduce the wait time and improve access to information for the 1.5 million client enquiry calls that are received each year," Datacom Group CEO, Jonathan Ladd, said.
Contact centres located in Sydney, the UK and Canada currently service the department. The transition to Datacom contact centre is expected to be completed by mid-2018.
Datacom will hire additional employees to support the contract. Up to 250 Datacom employees will be dedicated to provide services for the Department of Home Affairs and will be based in its customer care operations, training facility and IT Hub in Adelaide.
New technologies will be introduced to further enhance customer experience and improve the efficiently of the contact centre team, according to Datacom.
“This contract builds on Datacom Connect’s successful customer care operations for other significant government clients," Datacom Connect managing director, Kirsty Hunter, said.
“Our focus in the first year will be to consolidate three globally distributed contact centres into one location, to create Australian jobs and optimise efficiencies.”
In September 2017, Datacom Connect won a $76.3 million multi-year outsource labor services deal with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
The contract win, which sees Datacom Connect renew a pre-existing arrangement with the ATO, was one of a number of new business process outsource (BPO) deals Australia’s tax collector has just dished out to external suppliers.
